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John Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn had a cat. The villainous leader of SPECTRE in the Bond movies had a cat, as did Mike Meyer’s Doctor Evil. But in real life, so did Marlon Brando, Morgan Freeman, and Anthony Bourdain. With cats and dogs in your life people never are truly alone. Misanthropic perhaps, but not lonely. At least that is how my mother saw it whenever social services would call her to see how she was doing.

How many of the blogging community have cats and dogs in the same household? While I know some who have farms or ranches will have cats as well as dogs, I have not had a feline in the household for several years. I am again thinking of adopting a cat – I have had adopted cats, or those which adopted me – for most of the time I was not living and working aboard Navy ships or installations.

When I think of how well my animals in the past got along together, I chuckled. I would like to find a cat that would be compatible with Dexter and Comet, and be able to go outdoors without wandering off. You see, I have a doggie door to permit the dogs to come and go to the back yard. And if I adopt, will I have to crate the cat when we are not home? Now I do not want a feral cat, and not one that is very clinging. I am hopeful for finding one like Indy. Indy was my late mother’s cat whom we adopted after 2010, and this was the calmest (coolest) character. Blind in one eye, bony and thin, he took no guff from Dexter, or noticed the other housecats, went to visit the neighbors – hanging out for an afternoon, and even would go on short walks with us when I took the dogs around the neighborhood.

And then five years later I see a doppelganger for Indy in an Instagram from the local animal shelter. While my wife and son made a remark about Stephen King’s Pet Semetary cat, I was thinking more of Ghostbusters. Bill Murray, in the movie, Ghostbusters (1984), and I wonder whether cats and these dogs can live together?

It seems whenever a cat is destined to be part of my life, I have little choice in the matter. In this case, Petie has found his family to adopt. In the meantime, both dogs get their cat socialization at the groomer. For the moment, there is enough hair flying about to keep all my allergic friends sneezing for days.